Officially that is. Unofficially, these insider Super-Delegates can promise their allegiance, and their individual Super-Votes, to whomever they wish, whenever they wish.
Clinton Camp Says One-Fifth of Delegates Secured for Nomination
by Mark Halperin and Jennifer Esptein, bloomberg.com -- Aug 28, 2015
As Hillary Clinton's campaign seeks to project dominance in a field that could soon include Vice President Joe Biden, her top advisers are touting a decisive edge on a little-discussed metric: superdelegate commitments.
[...]
The campaign says that Clinton currently has about 130 superdelegates publicly backing her, but a person familiar with recent conversations in Minneapolis said that officials are telling supporters and the undecided in the last few days that private commitments increase that number to more than 440 -- about 20 percent of the number of delegates she would need to secure the nomination.
[...]
To be sure, Clinton had a superdelegate edge early against Barack Obama in 2008, and superdelegates are free to change their allegiance at any time between now and next summer's convention. But Clinton is ahead of the pace she had eight years ago in securing these commitments, and her support from the core of the establishment represented by these superdelegates is arguably the most tangible evidence of the difficulty Biden would have overtaking her with a late-starting campaign.
[...]
Barring some major scandal or controversy, and given Hillary and Bill Clinton's long-standing ties to Democratic Party elites, overcoming her superdelegate edge would be quite a challenge for Biden or the major candidates already competing against her for the nomination, including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
[...]
But what exactly is a
Super-Delegate?
[ Image Source: www.satirev.org ]
And what are these "special powers," that they alone possess?
Superdelegate -- from Wikipedia
A "superdelegate" is a delegate to the Democratic National Convention or Republican National Convention that is seated automatically, based on their status as current (Republican and Democratic) or former (Democratic only) party leader or elected official.
Other superdelegates are chosen during the primary season.
All the superdelegates are free to support any candidate for the nomination. This contrasts with convention delegates that are selected based on the party primaries and caucuses in each U.S. state, in which voters choose among candidates for the party's presidential nomination.
[...]
In 2008
At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, superdelegates cast approximately 823.5 votes, with fractions arising because superdelegates from Michigan, Florida, and Democrats Abroad are entitled to half a vote each. [...]
Pledged delegates from state caucuses and primaries will number 3,566, casting 3,409.5 votes, resulting in a total number of delegate votes of 4,233. A candidate needs a majority of that total, or (as of June 5) 2,117, to win the nomination.[27] Superdelegates account for approximately one fifth (19.6%) of all votes at the convention. Delegates chosen in the Democratic caucuses and primaries account for approximately four-fifths (80.4%) of the Democratic convention delegates.[27][29]
[ Image Source: apgovernment2010.yolasite.com ]
For the "list of seated superdelegates" who cast 'their own Super-Votes' in the 2008 Primary -- unhindered by the speedy democratic process of actual citizens voteing, nor the towering impositions of representative caucusing ... just scroll toward the end of the Wiki page here.
There may be a few "official" names you recognize there, each of whom exercised their "Super-Hero" privilege back in 2008, that taken together made up about 20% ... "of all votes at the convention." A similar such list will do the same in 2016, ... 440 already 'pledged', according to certain campaign insiders.
Isn't "citizen-generated" democracy ... just swell?
One might even call it ... "Super."